Update: Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Makes First Glide Flight

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Update: Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Makes First Glide Flight

Virgin Galactic's VSS Enterprise/SpaceShipTwo at the moment of release from mother ship Eve

Seven months after making its first captive flight attached to its mother ship White Knight Two, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo (aka VSS Enterprise) completed its first solo glide flight today touching down on runway 30 at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. The early morning flight took place after several months of simulated practice flights in the mother ship, also known as Eve, which has an identical cockpit as the space craft.

The glide flight is a critical first step for the team at Scaled Composites which is building the space ship for Virgin Galactic. Though there has been no word from the company, it is expected the flight test development of the VSS Enterprise will be similar to that of SpaceShipOne.

Back in 2003, SpaceShipOne performed seven solo glide flights before the first powered flight on 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers first flight.

Virgin Galactic boss Sir Richard Branson recently announced he expects the first passenger flights to suborbital space in SpaceShipTwo to happen within the next 18 months. Less than a year after the first glide flight of SpaceShipOne, the Scaled Composite team had flown to space three times, capturing the X Prize.

Passengers aboard the Virgin Galactic flights will be rocketed to more than 100km (62 miles) above the earth. The astronauts aboard the SpaceShipTwo flights will experience weightlessness as they float around the cabin for a few minutes and will be able to see the darkness of space and the curvature of the earth below. Several hundred tickets have already been sold for $200,000 each.

Update: In a release from Virgin Galactic, the company said today's first glide flight of SpaceShipTwo lasted 11 minutes after the space craft was released from its mother ship Eve at 45,000 feet. Scaled Composites test pilot and director of flight operations Pete Siebold was at the controls, with Mike Alsbury as co-pilot.

After a clean release, Siebold completed initial flight handling and stall characteristic evaluation of SpaceShipTwo. After completing a practice approach and landing at altitude, Siebold made the descent to the Mojave Air and Space Port and made a smooth landing.

“The VSS Enterprise was a real joy to fly, especially when one considers the fact that the vehicle has been designed not only to be a Mach 3.5 spaceship capable of going into space but also one of the worlds highest altitude gliders" Siebold said after the flight.

More photos (including the moment of the release) and a video previewing National Geographic's upcoming Virgin Galactic documentary after the jump.